News about the 4th edition of the Festival that will take place in Berlin all through the year 2008. The information about the former editions that were held on 22-26 november 2006, 13-22 february 2007 and 1-29 august, 2007 are still to be found somewhere in the jungle of this blop.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

18. August - Stralau 68 - Berlin Friedrichshain

The fish can speak and the insects can dance. Bamboo is a great teacher. Michael Peters has it all with him. His guitar will also be there, because Michael was in Köln when krautrock was growing out of everyone's ears. How his years of experience have lead to underwater recordings from Sardegna and bamboo recordings from Indonesia to become a part of a sonic composition will be proved on this saturday.

The Origami's come from a huge networkframe that has brought them recognition in some Berlin cold war zones. While steal was being bended, and secret hide-outs were searched for with steam engines, (much to the delight of a leatherfetished public with a srcreaming hairdo), Boe was booed at because he played his acoustic laptop. What to expect from one of the key figures of the ground breaking collaboration world?

Tore Honoré Boe puts it this way:Origami Boe: Woodwork is a meeting between wood, action and subtropical field recordings

Origami Tacet: An acoustic post-jazz duo that have been said to play live cut-ups in diverse rooms. Michael Duch and Boe (with guests?)

I am not going to introduce mattin. The Berlin public should know him by now. And those who do not know him, will not forget him after they have seen him. Expect to be scandalised, provoked, pleased and entertained. But above all, expect it loud... very loud.

2 Comments:

This evening in Stralau 68 was by far the most diverse. But first of all I would like to thank Jürg Bariletti for hosting us and helping us out with the technical details.

Wednesday at Glogauers I was approached by a young Australian guy who introduced himself as 'Rope'. Strange name , I thought. however in this age of nicknames also 'rope' sounds quiet convincing. Only on saturday I realised that it needs a familiarity to the Australian accent to deduct Rob from rope. Robert (also his last name went down in the storm of my tinnitus) asked if he could play. And I told him to come on saturday. He came with an MD-player and a Dat-recorder and played a very soothing set full of soft drones and angelic churchbells that I liked very much.

Tore proved to be a great conferencier, so I let him substitute my nurky self. He told how the invitation to the festival reached him while the island where he lived was burning down. He was sanding wood at that time as well. His set was a reconstruction of those days, with a real laptop being used as a cdr-player, spreading the radionews, and his wooden laptop bringing back the silent moments of island life.

Michael Peters came with his underwater recordings and street voices from Sardegna, that were treated every now and then by his guitar playing. Treated means that a lot of technical and electronic things happen between the touch of the snares and the output by the loudspeakers.

By this time I knew that this evening would be completely different from the very intimate other evening at Stralau. The wonderous thing is that the performers didn't only react to their own sounds, but also to each other's sets. So Tore opened the density of Robert's modified churchbells by bringing in the sad and also wild sounds of burning woods; Michael responded to this by a set that seemed to be reigned by the principles of Aeolus; some of his sounds moved as if they were picked up by the wind and thrown around, then it moved back to silence again, but never could he escape this chaotic play that makes your attention slide from one to another place.

It was the perfect anticipation to the duet by Origami Boe and Origami Tacet: Here the very center of the storm got reached. A really beautifull and playfull duet, the double bass reaching the deeper parts of our soul, and Boe caressing the surface. All was quiet and all was well.

Quiet and well enough for Mattin?Away went the table. The people at the bar got louder. Expectation filled the room. One microphone, a beautifull one that coloured very much with the silvery nightclubbish curtain behind him. Mattin dressed in black. He pushed something on the laptop next to him. He put on his dark sunglasses. His hands rested on his hips. He looked around slowly moving his head. He didn't play a sound.

A public without Markus Schwill, our own noise phantom of Neukölln would have started murmering perhaps, moving chairs, get up and walk away. But everyone stayed, because Markus decided to answer the proletarian provocation with an anarchistic one. What followed was almost half an hour of cabaret with Markus insulting Mattin and public alike, and even yours sincerely who has always been so nice to the man in red.

It ended when Markus went on stage, tapped the microphone and sang a little song, then stepped aside and invited Mattin to hit him, which was perfectly okay since he was insured.

Mattin remained moveless. Continued to look from behind his shades, same impeccable pose.

Markus was back on stage when the great wave of feedback got him and brought such a brilliant sound to the room that Markus voice underwent a helium effect, and was heard to tweek like Mickey Mouse. The feedback rolled off and on in waves. A performance like the thunder you wait for when you feel the summer's day has built up to it.

I said to Derek Holzer that this concert should have taken four hours. His reply was :"Yeah, but could you listen to Markus for that long?"

Michael, the double bass player thought it was the best noise concert he had ever seen.

Gerd, a first hour fan of the festival wondered what would have happened when there hadn't been a Markus.